Sapient Capital LLC Invests $178,000 in Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 42,928 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $178,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 770.4% in the 3rd quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 7,722,405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,036,000 after purchasing an additional 6,835,153 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Banco Santander by 87.6% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 10,708,245 shares of the bank’s stock worth $36,194,000 after acquiring an additional 4,999,413 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 37.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,999,050 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,316,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805,547 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in Banco Santander by 116.0% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 6,417,059 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,690,000 after purchasing an additional 3,445,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Banco Santander by 412.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,292,087 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,214,000 after purchasing an additional 2,649,928 shares during the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Banco Santander Price Performance

Shares of Banco Santander stock opened at $4.66 on Tuesday. Banco Santander, S.A. has a twelve month low of $3.20 and a twelve month high of $5.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $4.39 and its 200 day moving average is $4.11. The company has a market cap of $73.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 19.29%. The firm had revenue of $15.67 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Banco Santander, S.A. will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Banco Santander Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.1027 dividend. This is an increase from Banco Santander’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.2%. Banco Santander’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Barclays raised shares of Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, SA provides various financial services worldwide. The company operates through Retail Banking, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and PagoNxt segments. It offers demand and time deposits, mutual funds, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, loans, and various financing solutions; and project finance, debt capital markets, global transaction banking, and corporate finance services.